It's been a long time coming, this resurrection of hope and excitement in America, and around the world. I've been inundated with calls and emails from all over the world celebrating the direction our country has taken. In this global age, when it is possible for a small village in Kenya to get the news of the American election as it happens, we finally have a President who comprehends the reality that we are indeed all one. And the world can see it in Barack Obama--the mix of races, the blend of cultures from Africa to Indonesia to Harvard, the combination of a fierce intelligence and heartwarming compassion.
Like so many others who are involved in the work of raising consciousness, I am thrilled at the possibilities. As Obama said in his speech Tuesday night at Grant Park, in front of that sea of diverse faces, "... America is a place where all things are possible..." And the greatest of those possibilities is the opening of a world-wide feeling that we are one heart.
Even those who voted for McCain/Palin felt the momentous shift. Elizabeth Hasselbeck, the Republican go-to girl on The View, spoke about watching the election returns with her daughter Grace on her lap. When Grace asked "Who lost?" Elizabeth said, "No one lost today." Another of The View's women, African-American Sherri Shepherd, who had been an undecided voter up to election day, choked up as she recounting telling her son, "You don't have to have limitations!"
Peggy Noonan, a veteran of Republican presidential administrations, appeared on Oprah's Post Election Special and said Obama's win reminded her of the 1960 victory of John F. Kennedy, when she was astonished that an Irish Catholic could be elected president. She said, "[I] thought the breakthrough I felt then is the breakthrough so many are feeling now. And it is a beautiful thing to see history regenerate and move forward and broaden itself and surprise us and take its turns." She was also very impressed by Obama's grace, as witnessed in his reaction to those who pummeled Governor Palin when the press announced her daughter's teenage pregnancy. He said, "My mother was 18 when she had me," and thus quieted those who were being unkind. Noonan said, "That was grace when he didn't have to be. And it was a very touching and lovely thing."
That's the kind of man he is. President-elect Obama leads by example and inspires us to take the moral high ground, as he did for months on national TV as an increasingly nasty campaign attacked him over and over again. Michael Moore, known for being a thorn in the side of the Bush administration, noted on Larry King Live, "...we can all take a cue from him... he stayed on the high road, a truly Christian act, when he was called names, he didn't strike back."
As was said of Lincoln, "...he appealed to the better angels and brought out the best in all of us." Yes, as an "unleashed" Oprah screamed in jubilation, "there's been a shift in consciousness, big and bold." And with that raised consciousness, anything is indeed possible. We can leave behind the politics of fear and engage in a conversation of hope for a better future. Yes we can.